Parasite: The Smell You Cannot Wash Away (Amos 5:21-24)

The Parks in Parasite notice a smell on the Kim family that they cannot identify - the smell of poverty, of cheap soap, of basement living. No amount of scrubbing removes it; the poor literally carry their circumstances. Amos condemns worship that ignores justice: I hate, I despise your festivals... But let justice roll down like waters. The smell is systemic inequality made sensory. The Parks are not evil but blind - they cannot see the basement dwellers who make their lives possible. Parasite asks: who lives in your basement? Whose labor sustains your comfort invisibly? What smells do we refuse to notice?